Iryna begins each morning with a flashlight, making her way through her apartment in Kyiv without heating or electricity.
She and her husband climb out of bed to turn on the gas stove to heat water and get their eight-year-old daughter ready for school after frigid nights.
Iryna, 38, lives in the Desnianskyi district of Kyiv with her family.
Four years ago, before the Russian invasion, she told Metro her life was peaceful.
‘We had a lot of plans for the future, both long-term and short-term, about trips, vacations, and things like that,’ she says.
‘Of course, the beginning of the war turned all of those plans into dust. Now, I don’t even have the room to dream like that.’
Instead, Iryna and her husband think of ways to keep their eight-year-old daughter warm when temperatures drop.
Using layers of blankets, sleeping in the same bed, and filling water bottles in an attempt to keep the cold out.
‘We are tired. We are exhausted by this war and the new challenges that keep coming. We managed to adjust to power outages, then heat outages, then more attacks.’
‘These challenges become harsher and harsher. We don’t want to live like this,’ she tells Metro.
For four years, Russian strikes have continued to pummel Kyiv, knocking out power and killing hundreds of civilians.
Last November, a Russian drone smashed into Iryna’s in-laws’ home, killing them both.
As the war enters its fourth year today, the term ‘resilience’ has been thrown around to describe Ukrainians like Iryna, who are facing this violence firsthand. But she doesn’t take it as a compliment.
‘It’s an extra burden that was enforced on us [Ukrainians], something none of us actually wanted.
‘We wanted to live our lives. Now we have to be strong, even though we never asked to be,’ she tells Metro.
Iryna, like many others who have lived this way for almost half a decade now, says having to be strong and cope with no electricity, heat, and the death of loved ones isn’t a normal Ukrainian to be forced to live through.
‘I don’t treat this as a new normal. I really want things to change back to the way they were before. I still have hope that things will change for the better,’ she said.
In London, the lights are on. The heat is available to use if needed.
Residents in the UK have their own struggles with paying bills, but Iryna said those who are able to access these basic services shouldn’t take them for granted.
‘We used to take heating and electricity for granted,’ she says. ‘Now, we truly value it.’
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